First if I may, I'd like to take a moment to thank our many supporters and loyal fans. It's been overwhelming. Truly. I'm told that while I was away, we received just over 600 emails, letters and cards (637 to be exact). Two people sent flowers. :) I'm touched beyond words. Suffice to say that all of us here are all deeply deeply grateful.

With that in mind, management has asked that I reconsider. Thought is that maybe we acted rashly. Hmmm... I know I didn't. A return is not in the cards, I'm afraid. But the fact that others may think so surely means that I owe friends, colleagues, and our readers a more detailed explanation. Here it is in a nutshell: I believe with every ounce of my being that the PR business is being eaten by a 10-headed hydra. Frankly, I think the future of our business is questionable at best and certainly undignified.

Unless your BF's got PPV, ten buck says you missed this. It got very little coverage. The Web Fight of the Decade happened about a week ago. David Weinberger (author of “Everything is Miscellaneous”) and Andrew Keen (author of “Cult of the Amateur”) got into a brawl on-stage at Supernova and the fight continued out into the halls of The Westin in San Francisco. Brutal. Two heavyweights toe-to-toe trading blows over the single most important issue to face our culture in 100 years.

Diametrically opposed Keen and Weinberger happened to be panelists for the session, “Disorder: Feature or Bug?” The debate was about “the value of authority in a connected world.” According to session materials: "The greatest business challenge that the New Network poses for many companies is also a fundamental social challenge. The old categories, boundaries, hierarchies, and scarcities are being swept away. To what extent is that a good thing, and to what extent is it a threat to what we truly value?”

Bottom line: that’s everything folks. THAT'S THE WHOLE MEGILLAH!

The following are two tapes of the exchange that pored out into the Westin's lobby. (Special thanks to Nick Douglas.)

Current Lawsuit Clock

On Thursday, March 8, 2007 at 7:41 AM, Ronn Torossian, President and CEO of 5WPR, emphatically promised that he was going to sue us. No real reason, he was just irritated by our teasing him about getting in bed with pornographer Joe Francis. Anyway, Ronn gave his obscenity-laced word that we'd see the complaint in 72 hours. It's now late by

Kathleen Durazo about A Measly $2.8 Million Goes Missing, Lawsuit ResultsFri, Jul 31, 10:58:34 AMRay Durazo (the founder) sold the company to Dan in 1999. He was not involved in any of this. He (and I) found out about the lawsuit in the LA Times. In addition to embezzling this m [...]